What to Do When Your Furnace Misbehaves

Put it on time out?

Or you could spank the furnace, for whatever good that will do, I hear they are incorrigible. Besides, spanking the furnace may induce particle shedding.

Fortunately, we are not joined at the hip to our furnaces, and they can be replaced.

These are not the old days James. If you spank your furnace now, somebody calls F.P.S. (Furnace Protective Services) and you go to jail.

Heck, people shoot furnaces all the time, and they don't go to jail! Never mind these are cement furnaces making Portland and wet cure for the oil patch. When those rotating tube furnaces get the "clinkers", they shoot them with 12 ga. machine shotguns to knock it all down. I think they have to use iron slugs these days, not the familiar lead ones.

If we were talking monkeys, I am not touching any such subject.

I show mine vidoes of other furnaces that are in worse houses than mine or even the scrap yard so that it can see how lucky it is.

If that doesn't work, I go with some old school discipline grandpa taught me and beat it with a hammer cause nothing walks away from a good hammer beat down without rethinking the actions that lead up to it.

I just watch the "Christmas Story" and get some pointers from "the old man."

Yes, his were the choicest words on record, that can be mostly repeated in pleasant company.

BestInShow, although there are actually good tips in your article (every home owner should know), where did you think this thread would go with that title? Every reply on here is O.T.

You got to know us by now.

B.T.W. It is a good article, although I think every homeowner should know those things, I also know many do not. That's why Mr. HVAC gets big $$$$ for an emergency call to come out and hit the reset button or light your pilot light.

I would like to add to the article on #3. Furnace smells strange.

Last year, when I first started my furnace for the season, I could swear I smelled roasted chicken. This went on for a week or so and would disappear and come back through out the winter. In the spring, we had an early warm up, and a good storm that blew my pilot light out. I opened the door to light the pilot and the were about a dozen little skulls in there with a bunch of assorted bones.

My rain cap blew off the stack and birds were getting down in the burner chamber. I then knew why my cats were so interested with the furnace door vent at times.

Any advice for furnaces that suffer from neglect?

Ours in Minn. just cowers in the basement and comes on religiously when the indoor temp falls below 58°F all winter long, enough to keep the house warm enough so nothing freezes.

Then, when we're there for a week in the summer I hardly give it a glance. Oh, I'll change the filters and then it just sits there in the basement unappreciated for another year.

Seriously, the post has some good advice for home owners.

Oil or gas? You still should have the air plenum checked for leaks. Seems something has been going to your head here of late.